The last week of July 2011 will go down in history for when Jason Aldean’s country rap “Dirt Road Anthem” crested the #1 spot on the charts for all of country music. Pop songs and just plain bad songs swap out the #1 spot in country all the time, but here’s six reasons “Dirt Road Anthem” hitting #1 is significant.

#1 Radio Programmers Have Waived The White Flag

It is actually a miracle that “Dirt Road Anthem” has avoided the #1 spot until now. When Jason performed the song on the CMT Awards in early June with Ludacris, it was already a top video on CMT. The video of the live performance quickly became a top CMT video as well, but radio programmer’s reluctance to feature it prominently on the airwaves kept it out of the top tier spot on the charts. For once, the colusiveness of country radio worked in the favor of people with any musical taste…until now. Apparently public demand has won out, and there’s no reason to think we won’t see more country rap creeping on to the airwaves hereafter.

#2 Pop country is no longer in the hot seat

When Taylor Swift won the CMA for Entertainer of the Year in 2009, we thought it couldn’t get any worse. Well guess what, it did. Like water, the devolution of country music will find a path. Now instead of pop country standing in the crosshairs of traditional country fans, or considered the lowest tier of country music by outsiders, there’s a new whipping boy. Country rap and the “New Outlaws” have made many nostalgic for the days when American Idols were the worst thing you could hear on country radio.

#3 Jason Aldean is now viable candidate for Song, Album, & Entertainer of the Year

Not only is “Dirt Road Anthem” now a #1 single, it has been in the top 5 for two months. This is not a flash in the pan, and Aldean’s album My Kinda Party is already the best-selling country album of 2011 so far, even beating Taylor Swift’s stalwart Speak Now. Jason Aldean is undeniably a country music superstar, and he, his album, and this song, are serious candidates for top honors at this year’s CMA Awards. All of a sudden Taylor Swift winning the awards does not seem like such a bad alternative.

#4 Colt Ford is a #1 Songwriter

I still believe “Dirt Road Anthem” was written at least partly in jest, just like most the songs penned by the country music Grimmace. Mainstream country music has now become a joke, literally, and watch as the line forms to the left of country music franchise personalities looking to cover or collaborate with Colt. Colt might also see enhanced radio play for his own songs. Despite the big sales numbers for his albums, he’s received little to no radio play, but now that the country rap cherry is popped, people will be demanding more. And Colt Ford apologists can no longer say he’s just an average Joe on the outside looking in. Ford is now a major force in mainstream country music, and as long as he doesn’t blow his royalties on chicken and biscuits, probably a fairly wealthy man.

#5 The Mono-genre is no longer a theory, it is a reality.

People who laughed at your lovable Triggerman when I asserted that all of music was coalescing into two super-genres that would eventually meld into one big mono-genre, with country taking a submissive role to rap in that formation, now have some explaining to do. Country rap is not just a garden-variety sub-genre that was bound to pop up, it is the ruler of the roost. And tell me, where are the songs with country themes or styles in the hip hop charts?

#6 A new crop of country rap songs/artist are on the way.

Just like how you can blame a blizzard on a rash of births nine moths later, the Music Row machine undoubetdly is being retooled to meet the burgeoning country rap demand, and we will be seeing the results in the upcoming months. The only question is, in what form will it be? Will we see established artists adopting the new style, sort of like the rash of country checklist songs we see coming from a wide swath of previously-known acts right now? Or will it be the popularization of the Colt Fords and Moonshine Bandits of the world? Even before the trend begins in earnest, country rap has the markings of a flashpan fad that will be used as comedy fodder for future generations.

33 Comments

Kyle S.
July 29, 2011 @
2:24 pm

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see that coming. Funny, you posted this mere minutes after I found out that Mr. Aldean himself would be gracing my town for a concert in October. I’m sure the groveling masses will sell out the show and clap their flippers like so many trained seals as Mr. Aldean aurally rapes the name of country music. I for one will not be attending.

I really don’t like that song. It annoys the hell out of me. He’s invasive. I switched from L, B & D the other day to STH and that damn song was on the radio between ejecting one cd and putting in the other! I couldn’t switch ’em out fast enough! The radio station here plays it every 2 hours.

Like I said on a previous Trigger Man rip on this song … I’m sure Ludacris has been on more dirt roads than Jason Aldean. They might not sing “country” music, but them boys got more country in ’em than Aldean.

It makes me wanna toss the proverbial cookies when I listen to pop country radio, every song is the same formula, and now we have to add rapping urban cowboys. Is there no pride or respect for real country music anymore in today’s modern society?? Hell, it’s not like I’m 80 years old and just hate young whipper snappers or something, I’m 32 and I literally can’t stomach the thought of the mono-genre abortion happening center stage on music row.

Disgusted, and listening to, Highlonesome, and Caleb Klauder the rest of the evening.

Funny how it changed to bow down to the dollar. The Grand Ole Opry, supposed mother church, did not tolerate drinking from Hank Williams. But there sure can be a hit POP country song about that very thing.

Face it. Pop-country is like a terminally ill patient. And the family of this patient, which includes both the public and the industry are divided about what to do. I am with the part of the family that says: damn, I never really liked him that much. Pay my respect, and go listen to some real music. Because country-music also has provided for some very good offspring. Maybe it’s not on the radio, but we got the internet. We don’t need pop-country-radio.
So now the industry comes up with a new treatment: country-hiphop, or whatever the name is. I checked it out (I listened to Dirtroad anthem. One time), and I didn’t believe it would do any good for our patient. I checked with the Hiphop-family, they had to laugh. This is not hiphop, they said, this is wannabe hiphop, no garantee, it might work, but only for a short time.
Triggerman, you were asking about country-themes in the hiphopcharts, and I think that if you start looking, you will find them. Maybe not in the charts, but on the albums. Today I heard the new Kottonmouth cd, The Sunrise Sessions, and the song Closing Time is about honky tonkin’, hell raisin’ and shooting pool. It mentions a jukebox and a bloody mary morning. And in the chorus: we drink moonshine and we walk the line.
Ignore pop-country, promote the real stuff.

the one good thing about country rap is it is hopefully kill pop country then after people realize its shit country might go back to sounding like country the only thing for sure is its going to be a couple mre years of this crap

That’s a damn good song. I hadn’t heard of Craig Campbell before- thanks for turning me on to that! That’s real country, and should still have mainstream appel- no reason stuff like this shouldn’t be tearing up the country charts instead of Aldean.

please tell me you are kidding… you are promoting that piece of crap excuse for a song “don’t i have all the luck, i found a girl that likes to F…ish” song and whatever pitifull ‘artist’ that chose to record it??… the only relevance is that this song and the rise of the country-rap are both shit….

It is an insult to the intelligence to insinuate that there is no difference between spoken word and rapping, and it insults spoken word AND rap to try and act like there”™s no distinction between the two.

This is the dumbest, and most insulting of the arguments for country rap, that, “Hey, Charlie Daniel”™s ”˜Devil Went Down To Georgia”™ was the first rap song ever because he spoke instead of sang”. Please. Charlie Daniels, Red Sovine, the old cowboy country poets were speaking, and Jason Aldean is rapping, and we all know the difference, and we all know Aldean is rapping because that is the gimmick he”™s employed to get people to pay attention to him. Yes, there may be some very minor aesthetic similarities between rap and spoken word, but in no way is “Dirt Road Anthem” an extension of the spoken word tradition of country music, or spoken word in country an originator of rap.

It is an insult to the intelligence to insinuate that there is no difference between spoken word and rapping, and it insults spoken word AND rap to try and act like there’s no distinction between the two.

This is the dumbest, and most insulting of the arguments for country rap, that, “Hey, Charlie Daniel”™s ”˜Devil Went Down To Georgia”™ was the first rap song ever because he spoke instead of sang”. Please. Charlie Daniels, Red Sovine, the old cowboy country poets were speaking, and Jason Aldean is rapping, and we all know the difference, and we all know Aldean is rapping because that is the gimmick he”™s employed to get people to pay attention to him. Yes, there may be some very minor aesthetic similarities between rap and spoken word, but in no way is “Dirt Road Anthem” an extension of the spoken word tradition of country music, or spoken word in country an originator of rap.

Some songs have a “spoken” quality. Luke the Drifter is an example of “spoken” quality done more effectively as well as quite eloquently. Can’t see the difference between pop and classic? Don’t know what to tell ’em then. I think it’s quite plain to see. Charlie Daniels “Devil went Down to Georgia” is miles apart from any correlation the pop country fanatics are trying to muster up. Honkey Tonk Badoonka Donk is an example of spoken “rap” in a country song. It should have never been recorded.

All Jacked Up is another example. Steady at the Wheel is another. Their melody is tight. It slips off the tongue without the need of instruments. It is the melody. But the subject matter can be considered trite, almost lightheartedly ridiculous. On the other hand, A Boy named Sue was so different than anything done before. It was naturally compelling, paired with Johnny’s salty voice that the flavor was overwhelming. Seasoned just right.

Jason aldean is a fuckin joke. I’m only 20 and I have to sit around and listen to my friends talk about this awesome new “country song” all the time. Their iPods are Jason aldean, brantley Gilbert whose name sounds like it should be competing with Oscar meyer and eckrich for best bologna. It’s all crap. It sucks now cuz I’m too young and I’ll never get to see my favorite singers in concert. My cd case has nothing but Waylon Willie David Allen Coe Merle Johnny Hank shooter etc. This new country is bullshit. Thank you grandpa for my music R.I.P.

Im not going to go on a rant about this song. Its a young persons view of living in the country. Im no more disappointed in this than when I heard Willie Nelson do songs with Brian McKnight,Al Green, Rob Thomas. Hank jr has did songs with Rehab and Tom Petty glorifies swaying from the norm in Young Country. Merle did a song with Jewel, George Jones and Charlie Daniels are on Aaron Lewis’ Country Boy song. David Allan Coe has rapped,sang with Kid Rock and did a metal album. I just saw Hank III live,who boasts about keeping the old tradition alive. He did about 1 hour of screaming metal. I guess anything goes now and days.

But Jason Aldean is outselling them all, so there is some jealousy involved for some idiotic reason. Extremely successful artists in country always draw this kind of bs while those who are mediocre can do the same thing or worse and get away with it.

Good grief, where have you people been? Country music has been about drinking and partying forever. It’s nothing new in any way…lol. It used to be heavily about adultery too, I for one am glad that one passed. It stll returns occasionally, but back in the day they wore that theme out.